The ACE Master the Manual is a study guide designed to accompany the ACE (Personal Trainer, Group Fitness Instructor, HC, AHFS) Manual. The manual typically comes with a study bundle – best value – although it can be sold separately if you don’t already have one. If you are using the ACE’s Essentials of Exercise Science for Fitness Professionals, then your ‘master the manual’ study guide is at the end of each chapter.

We’ve talked about when to use the Master the Manual material in previous blog posts. But today we are going to talk just a little more about what the Master the Manual is and what it is trying to achieve.

For each chapter in your manual there is a corresponding Master the Manual chapter. Each Master the Manual chapter is divided into the following sections:

Expand Your Knowledge

Multiple – choice Questions

Show What You Know

Practice What You Know

The goal of your Master the Manual study guide is to help you review the material you just read about in your manual and to help you focus in on the important concepts. Just like some people learn better visually/auditory/kinesthetically, the Master the Manual tries to reach those candidates who learn best from multiple choice/fill in the blank/listing questions. I’ve talked before about ‘you know the material when you can explain it’, and the Show What You Know (and some Expand Your Knowledge) really helps to emphasize this in a way that multiple choice questions can’t.

However…this variety of question styles is also where some people get a little worried about how the questions in Master the Manual relate to questions on the certification exam. Remember that the certification exam is multiple choice for all questions. All those explanation, listing, fill in the blank questions in the Master the Manual are there to help you review. You will not see that same style of question on the certification exam. You may see the same information covered in both places, but the certification exam is strictly multiple choice.

Another concern I hear from candidates is regarding the depth of the questions asked in the Master the Manual books. Keep in mind that Master the Manual is review, not testing. A question like -

“What are three ways that a personal trainer can attend to the environment where he or she meets with a prospective or current client?”

- is designed to help you think about attending behavior, and then how it can be applied. This same concept may show up on the certification exam, but not in this same format.